We live in an age where our CV has become less impactful than our social media accounts, when applying for a new job.

Looking back to the number of years we have been active on social media, we have all definitely posted something that would not be flattering to reveal to a potential employer. 

Follow these simple steps to clean up your online presence. 

The simplest way to start is to go to your free email account(s), be it Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or any other service. Go through your primary inbox and spam folder and look through all your subscriptions and make a list.

Now, go to your browser(s) and check your old bookmarked sites and saved credentials for services and add them to the list. 

Finally, go through the list, mark all the services and sites you don't visit anymore, and start disconnecting those services and unsubscribing from those websites and newsletters. 

The second place to cleanup would be your social media accounts. For each platform, you need to: 

1-     Check connected apps and remove old or unused ones. 

2-     Remove Time-waster apps, pages or people. 

3-     Cleanup your newsfeed; you don't need negativity in your life.

4-     Cleanup your friends list.

5-     Delete embarrassing or offensive posts.

6-     Clean up your photos and media. Make sure what is left reflects who you are now.

Thirdly, check your notifications. Which app or service, or website is being noisy? What messages have the least value for you? What news platform is wasting your time with clickbait? 

Turn those off!

Finally, take note of your screen time. All our devices track how much time we spend on each app or website, which can be a good eye-opener for how much time we waste. 

Take control of that time and invest it in your mental health and productivity. 

Our online presence is like our house: after so many years, it is inevitable to find clutter everywhere and trash we accumulated over the years. And just like cleaning your home, cleaning your online presence can be a difficult task, but it will make you feel better. 

PS: Don't forget to Google yourself and make sure you haven't missed anything.